Veritas Storage Foundation Intelligent Storage Provisioning 5.0.1 Solutions Guide, HP-UX 11i v3, First Edition, November 2009

Because snapshots hold a point-in-time copy of a
production database, a replica of the database can be set
up using the snapshots. Operations such as decision
support analysis and business reporting do not require
access to up-to-the-minute information. This means that
they can use a database copy that is running on a host
other than the primary. When required, the database copy
can quickly be synchronized with the data in the primary
database.
Decision support analysis and
reporting
Development or service groups can use snapshots as test
data for new applications. Snapshot data provides
developers, system testers and QA groups with a realistic
basis for testing the robustness, integrity and performance
of new applications.
Testing and training
Logic errors caused by an administrator or an application
program can compromise the integrity of a database. By
restoring the database table files from a snapshot copy,
the database can be recovered more quickly than by full
restoration from tape or other backup media.
Database error recovery
Off-host processing is made simpler by using linked break-off snapshots, which
can be set up in a different disk group from the data volume. This makes them
especially suitable for off-host processing applications where you may want to
create the snapshot on storage with different characteristics from that used for
the data volumes.
Implementing off-host processing solutions
Figure 4-1 illustrates an example of off-host processing.
Off-host processing solutions
Implementing off-host processing solutions
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